Lenticular and wave clouds are cool, but they don’t hold a candle to the undulatus asperatus clouds. Not new, but new to science, its Latin name means “undulating wave”. it’s like staring up from under the sea, or from beneath an undulating ice formation, except we are seeing a cloud rather than a solid or liquid. They look ominous, but are rarely stormy. Why they form and what their pattern means? I haven’t been able to find anything. Can you? (via APOD)
Pop-upView Separately

Lenticular and wave clouds are cool, but they don’t hold a candle to the undulatus asperatus clouds. Not new, but new to science, its Latin name means “undulating wave”. it’s like staring up from under the sea, or from beneath an undulating ice formation, except we are seeing a cloud rather than a solid or liquid.

They look ominous, but are rarely stormy. Why they form and what their pattern means? I haven’t been able to find anything. Can you?

(via APOD)

Source: apod.nasa.gov

Seeing (Infra)Red

I’m continually amazed at the added beauty of the world when we are allowed to view it from a point beyond our usual sensory range.

Do you know why plants are green? It’s because they reflect green light more intensely than other colors. If anything, that kind of makes them not green. If it doesn’t contribute to photosynthesis, they have no use for it. And although we can’t see it with our limited vision, they also eschew the infrared. 

Andrew Shurtleff has made a stunning time-lapse showcasing the world as viewed in near-infrared. The light-sensitive chips of digital cameras can sense these wavelengths outside human vision (near-infrared being about 800-2000 nm wavelengths compared to our 400-700 nm visual range). With the right kind of video editing, that infrared world comes alive like a planet painted from pure ice. The leafy material appears white due to its intense reflection of infrared light.

Holy wow.

Infrared photography has been used for decades to study vegetation. Kodak’s infrared-sensitive Aerochrome film paints the plant world in an eerie dusting of pink that you’ll have to see to believe. And NASA, whose scientists use the entirety of the electromagnetic spectrum to paint pictures of our world and others in Pepto-pink, create amazing works of Earth as art using infrared filters:

(via Bad Astronomy)

Source: Slate

staceythinx: Beautifully atmospheric photography by Adnan Bubalo Great googly moogly … if we ever find another inhabited planet there’s just no chance it will be as pretty as this one. Ok, that first part’s not precisely true, but you know what I mean. Look at all that gorgeous Rayleigh scattering and atmospheric refraction!Earth, you damn fine.
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Beautifully atmospheric photography by Adnan Bubalo Great googly moogly … if we ever find another inhabited planet there’s just no chance it will be as pretty as this one. Ok, that first part’s not precisely true, but you know what I mean. Look at all that gorgeous Rayleigh scattering and atmospheric refraction!Earth, you damn fine.
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Beautifully atmospheric photography by Adnan Bubalo Great googly moogly … if we ever find another inhabited planet there’s just no chance it will be as pretty as this one. Ok, that first part’s not precisely true, but you know what I mean. Look at all that gorgeous Rayleigh scattering and atmospheric refraction!Earth, you damn fine.
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Beautifully atmospheric photography by Adnan Bubalo Great googly moogly … if we ever find another inhabited planet there’s just no chance it will be as pretty as this one. Ok, that first part’s not precisely true, but you know what I mean. Look at all that gorgeous Rayleigh scattering and atmospheric refraction!Earth, you damn fine.
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Beautifully atmospheric photography by Adnan Bubalo Great googly moogly … if we ever find another inhabited planet there’s just no chance it will be as pretty as this one. Ok, that first part’s not precisely true, but you know what I mean. Look at all that gorgeous Rayleigh scattering and atmospheric refraction!Earth, you damn fine.
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Beautifully atmospheric photography by Adnan Bubalo Great googly moogly … if we ever find another inhabited planet there’s just no chance it will be as pretty as this one. Ok, that first part’s not precisely true, but you know what I mean. Look at all that gorgeous Rayleigh scattering and atmospheric refraction!Earth, you damn fine.
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Beautifully atmospheric photography by Adnan Bubalo Great googly moogly … if we ever find another inhabited planet there’s just no chance it will be as pretty as this one. Ok, that first part’s not precisely true, but you know what I mean. Look at all that gorgeous Rayleigh scattering and atmospheric refraction!Earth, you damn fine.
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Beautifully atmospheric photography by Adnan Bubalo Great googly moogly … if we ever find another inhabited planet there’s just no chance it will be as pretty as this one. Ok, that first part’s not precisely true, but you know what I mean. Look at all that gorgeous Rayleigh scattering and atmospheric refraction!Earth, you damn fine.
Zoom Info

staceythinx:

Beautifully atmospheric photography by Adnan Bubalo

Great googly moogly … if we ever find another inhabited planet there’s just no chance it will be as pretty as this one.

Ok, that first part’s not precisely true, but you know what I mean.

Look at all that gorgeous Rayleigh scattering and atmospheric refraction!Earth, you damn fine.

Just your daily reminder that there’s a bad-ass robot powered by nuclear energy drilling holes and taking names on our neighboring planet right now, you know … lest you forget just how incredibly cool that is. This is the most recent self-portrait of Curiosity, as she (yep, it’s a she) sits atop a rocky perch named for John Klein, the late Mars Science Laboratory deputy manager. The rover is embarking on the next phase of its mission: Drilling rock samples and scooping them into its internal chemical analysis machinery. You can see the first drill holes and scooped sample in the inset photos. I’m amazed at how thin the red dusty layer is in some areas of Mars. Rather than be made of red rock through and through, those iron oxides only cover the red planet in a light dusting of rusty dust. Scrape it away or drill beneath it just a few centimeters and it’s ashy gray! Continue your exploration! Check out an enlarged version of the composite self-portrait here. And for the truly adventurous, check out this interactive 360-degree panorama (especially if you’re on a mobile device … OH MAN so cool!!!!)
Zoom Info
Just your daily reminder that there’s a bad-ass robot powered by nuclear energy drilling holes and taking names on our neighboring planet right now, you know … lest you forget just how incredibly cool that is. This is the most recent self-portrait of Curiosity, as she (yep, it’s a she) sits atop a rocky perch named for John Klein, the late Mars Science Laboratory deputy manager. The rover is embarking on the next phase of its mission: Drilling rock samples and scooping them into its internal chemical analysis machinery. You can see the first drill holes and scooped sample in the inset photos. I’m amazed at how thin the red dusty layer is in some areas of Mars. Rather than be made of red rock through and through, those iron oxides only cover the red planet in a light dusting of rusty dust. Scrape it away or drill beneath it just a few centimeters and it’s ashy gray! Continue your exploration! Check out an enlarged version of the composite self-portrait here. And for the truly adventurous, check out this interactive 360-degree panorama (especially if you’re on a mobile device … OH MAN so cool!!!!)
Zoom Info
Just your daily reminder that there’s a bad-ass robot powered by nuclear energy drilling holes and taking names on our neighboring planet right now, you know … lest you forget just how incredibly cool that is. This is the most recent self-portrait of Curiosity, as she (yep, it’s a she) sits atop a rocky perch named for John Klein, the late Mars Science Laboratory deputy manager. The rover is embarking on the next phase of its mission: Drilling rock samples and scooping them into its internal chemical analysis machinery. You can see the first drill holes and scooped sample in the inset photos. I’m amazed at how thin the red dusty layer is in some areas of Mars. Rather than be made of red rock through and through, those iron oxides only cover the red planet in a light dusting of rusty dust. Scrape it away or drill beneath it just a few centimeters and it’s ashy gray! Continue your exploration! Check out an enlarged version of the composite self-portrait here. And for the truly adventurous, check out this interactive 360-degree panorama (especially if you’re on a mobile device … OH MAN so cool!!!!)
Zoom Info

Just your daily reminder that there’s a bad-ass robot powered by nuclear energy drilling holes and taking names on our neighboring planet right now, you know … lest you forget just how incredibly cool that is.

This is the most recent self-portrait of Curiosity, as she (yep, it’s a she) sits atop a rocky perch named for John Klein, the late Mars Science Laboratory deputy manager. The rover is embarking on the next phase of its mission: Drilling rock samples and scooping them into its internal chemical analysis machinery. You can see the first drill holes and scooped sample in the inset photos.

I’m amazed at how thin the red dusty layer is in some areas of Mars. Rather than be made of red rock through and through, those iron oxides only cover the red planet in a light dusting of rusty dust. Scrape it away or drill beneath it just a few centimeters and it’s ashy gray!

Continue your exploration! Check out an enlarged version of the composite self-portrait here. And for the truly adventurous, check out this interactive 360-degree panorama (especially if you’re on a mobile device … OH MAN so cool!!!!)

This is what it looks like to shock flowers with 80,000 volts. In this odd but old photographic technique (called Kirlian photography), the object is placed over photographic film over a metal plate. When the extreme voltages are applied, the air surrounding the flower is ionized, leaving a ghostly electric image on the film. The remainder of the colorful image is hand-painted later. Check out Robert Buelteman’s gallery for more shockingly ethereal flowers. Bonus: Check out this gallery of plants imaged via electromagnetic photography at myampgoesto11. Gorgeous! (via DeMilked)
Pop-upView Separately

This is what it looks like to shock flowers with 80,000 volts. In this odd but old photographic technique (called Kirlian photography), the object is placed over photographic film over a metal plate. When the extreme voltages are applied, the air surrounding the flower is ionized, leaving a ghostly electric image on the film. The remainder of the colorful image is hand-painted later.

Check out Robert Buelteman’s gallery for more shockingly ethereal flowers.

Bonus: Check out this gallery of plants imaged via electromagnetic photography at myampgoesto11. Gorgeous!

(via DeMilked)

Source: demilked.com

Fleeting Mercury Mercury travels behind our celestial sphere on a short leash, its short orbit obscuring it from view thanks to the Sun’s intense light. Only during moments of twilight, in the time between when the solar disk has sunk and Mercury trails behind it, is the solar system’s smallest planet visible, and only then during certain times of year. Here it is captured by Juan Carlos Casado during the month of March 2000, its fleeting hop above the horizon tracked in several combined photos. In fact, the planet’s name itself derives from the god Mercury’s fleeting and erratic nature. (via APOD)
Pop-upView Separately

Fleeting Mercury

Mercury travels behind our celestial sphere on a short leash, its short orbit obscuring it from view thanks to the Sun’s intense light. Only during moments of twilight, in the time between when the solar disk has sunk and Mercury trails behind it, is the solar system’s smallest planet visible, and only then during certain times of year.

Here it is captured by Juan Carlos Casado during the month of March 2000, its fleeting hop above the horizon tracked in several combined photos.

In fact, the planet’s name itself derives from the god Mercury’s fleeting and erratic nature.

(via APOD)

Source: apod.nasa.gov

Perspective Is Everything Nature has provided man with artistic inspiration from the first cave paintings to the most contemporary abstractions.  Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield is daily assembling his own gallery of artistic inspirations, armed with a camera in his seat aboard the International Space Station. Col. Hadfield’s Tumblr and Twitter feed are a simply stunning collection of Earth as art, and I highly recommend losing yourself in them for as long as you can. Very few people will ever get to see Earth from that perspective, but I was curious how scenes of Earth from orbit might overlap with terrestrial art. Are these a sign of inspirations yet to come, as we gain more appreciation for our planet from above it? From top: Boston at night vs. bursting fireworks Dripping reds and blues of the Australian outback vs. Reflections by my friend Kiah Denson The Etosha Pan of Africa vs. Jackson Pollock’s Gothic 1944 I doubt we’ll ever replicate the full splendor of nature in any medium. Even the most talented human hands still make little more than drugstore postcards attempting to capture the true beauty of a salty seaside sunset. But perhaps by altering our perspective on that which we are trying to capture, we can come ever closer.
Zoom Info
Perspective Is Everything Nature has provided man with artistic inspiration from the first cave paintings to the most contemporary abstractions.  Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield is daily assembling his own gallery of artistic inspirations, armed with a camera in his seat aboard the International Space Station. Col. Hadfield’s Tumblr and Twitter feed are a simply stunning collection of Earth as art, and I highly recommend losing yourself in them for as long as you can. Very few people will ever get to see Earth from that perspective, but I was curious how scenes of Earth from orbit might overlap with terrestrial art. Are these a sign of inspirations yet to come, as we gain more appreciation for our planet from above it? From top: Boston at night vs. bursting fireworks Dripping reds and blues of the Australian outback vs. Reflections by my friend Kiah Denson The Etosha Pan of Africa vs. Jackson Pollock’s Gothic 1944 I doubt we’ll ever replicate the full splendor of nature in any medium. Even the most talented human hands still make little more than drugstore postcards attempting to capture the true beauty of a salty seaside sunset. But perhaps by altering our perspective on that which we are trying to capture, we can come ever closer.
Zoom Info
Perspective Is Everything Nature has provided man with artistic inspiration from the first cave paintings to the most contemporary abstractions.  Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield is daily assembling his own gallery of artistic inspirations, armed with a camera in his seat aboard the International Space Station. Col. Hadfield’s Tumblr and Twitter feed are a simply stunning collection of Earth as art, and I highly recommend losing yourself in them for as long as you can. Very few people will ever get to see Earth from that perspective, but I was curious how scenes of Earth from orbit might overlap with terrestrial art. Are these a sign of inspirations yet to come, as we gain more appreciation for our planet from above it? From top: Boston at night vs. bursting fireworks Dripping reds and blues of the Australian outback vs. Reflections by my friend Kiah Denson The Etosha Pan of Africa vs. Jackson Pollock’s Gothic 1944 I doubt we’ll ever replicate the full splendor of nature in any medium. Even the most talented human hands still make little more than drugstore postcards attempting to capture the true beauty of a salty seaside sunset. But perhaps by altering our perspective on that which we are trying to capture, we can come ever closer.
Zoom Info
Perspective Is Everything Nature has provided man with artistic inspiration from the first cave paintings to the most contemporary abstractions.  Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield is daily assembling his own gallery of artistic inspirations, armed with a camera in his seat aboard the International Space Station. Col. Hadfield’s Tumblr and Twitter feed are a simply stunning collection of Earth as art, and I highly recommend losing yourself in them for as long as you can. Very few people will ever get to see Earth from that perspective, but I was curious how scenes of Earth from orbit might overlap with terrestrial art. Are these a sign of inspirations yet to come, as we gain more appreciation for our planet from above it? From top: Boston at night vs. bursting fireworks Dripping reds and blues of the Australian outback vs. Reflections by my friend Kiah Denson The Etosha Pan of Africa vs. Jackson Pollock’s Gothic 1944 I doubt we’ll ever replicate the full splendor of nature in any medium. Even the most talented human hands still make little more than drugstore postcards attempting to capture the true beauty of a salty seaside sunset. But perhaps by altering our perspective on that which we are trying to capture, we can come ever closer.
Zoom Info
Perspective Is Everything Nature has provided man with artistic inspiration from the first cave paintings to the most contemporary abstractions.  Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield is daily assembling his own gallery of artistic inspirations, armed with a camera in his seat aboard the International Space Station. Col. Hadfield’s Tumblr and Twitter feed are a simply stunning collection of Earth as art, and I highly recommend losing yourself in them for as long as you can. Very few people will ever get to see Earth from that perspective, but I was curious how scenes of Earth from orbit might overlap with terrestrial art. Are these a sign of inspirations yet to come, as we gain more appreciation for our planet from above it? From top: Boston at night vs. bursting fireworks Dripping reds and blues of the Australian outback vs. Reflections by my friend Kiah Denson The Etosha Pan of Africa vs. Jackson Pollock’s Gothic 1944 I doubt we’ll ever replicate the full splendor of nature in any medium. Even the most talented human hands still make little more than drugstore postcards attempting to capture the true beauty of a salty seaside sunset. But perhaps by altering our perspective on that which we are trying to capture, we can come ever closer.
Zoom Info
Perspective Is Everything Nature has provided man with artistic inspiration from the first cave paintings to the most contemporary abstractions.  Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield is daily assembling his own gallery of artistic inspirations, armed with a camera in his seat aboard the International Space Station. Col. Hadfield’s Tumblr and Twitter feed are a simply stunning collection of Earth as art, and I highly recommend losing yourself in them for as long as you can. Very few people will ever get to see Earth from that perspective, but I was curious how scenes of Earth from orbit might overlap with terrestrial art. Are these a sign of inspirations yet to come, as we gain more appreciation for our planet from above it? From top: Boston at night vs. bursting fireworks Dripping reds and blues of the Australian outback vs. Reflections by my friend Kiah Denson The Etosha Pan of Africa vs. Jackson Pollock’s Gothic 1944 I doubt we’ll ever replicate the full splendor of nature in any medium. Even the most talented human hands still make little more than drugstore postcards attempting to capture the true beauty of a salty seaside sunset. But perhaps by altering our perspective on that which we are trying to capture, we can come ever closer.
Zoom Info

Perspective Is Everything

Nature has provided man with artistic inspiration from the first cave paintings to the most contemporary abstractions. 

Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield is daily assembling his own gallery of artistic inspirations, armed with a camera in his seat aboard the International Space Station. Col. Hadfield’s Tumblr and Twitter feed are a simply stunning collection of Earth as art, and I highly recommend losing yourself in them for as long as you can. Very few people will ever get to see Earth from that perspective, but I was curious how scenes of Earth from orbit might overlap with terrestrial art. Are these a sign of inspirations yet to come, as we gain more appreciation for our planet from above it?

From top:

  • Boston at night vs. bursting fireworks
  • Dripping reds and blues of the Australian outback vs. Reflections by my friend Kiah Denson
  • The Etosha Pan of Africa vs. Jackson Pollock’s Gothic 1944

I doubt we’ll ever replicate the full splendor of nature in any medium. Even the most talented human hands still make little more than drugstore postcards attempting to capture the true beauty of a salty seaside sunset. But perhaps by altering our perspective on that which we are trying to capture, we can come ever closer.

Panoramic Eruption Volcanic eruptions, while seemingly rare, are actually quite common. There’s around 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth and about 50 of those will erupt in a given year. But rarely will two erupt close to each other. Even rarer is three erupting in proximity. Four? That’s just nuts! But that’s what is currently happening on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, along the northwest edge of the Ring of Fire. This particular string of of eruptions around Tolbachik resulted in huge rivers of lava pouring from fissures in the Earth, but very little ash and debris released into the sky. This allowed an aerial panorama team to helicopter around the bubbling inferno without dying a fiery death. They put together this amazing interactive volcano panorama that lets you fly above the action from the comfort of your own home, which is much safer than trudging through Siberian ice in order to stand next to exploding magma. Enjoy that (I did), and then check out this photo tour of the year in volcanic activity from The Atlantic.
Zoom Info
Panoramic Eruption Volcanic eruptions, while seemingly rare, are actually quite common. There’s around 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth and about 50 of those will erupt in a given year. But rarely will two erupt close to each other. Even rarer is three erupting in proximity. Four? That’s just nuts! But that’s what is currently happening on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, along the northwest edge of the Ring of Fire. This particular string of of eruptions around Tolbachik resulted in huge rivers of lava pouring from fissures in the Earth, but very little ash and debris released into the sky. This allowed an aerial panorama team to helicopter around the bubbling inferno without dying a fiery death. They put together this amazing interactive volcano panorama that lets you fly above the action from the comfort of your own home, which is much safer than trudging through Siberian ice in order to stand next to exploding magma. Enjoy that (I did), and then check out this photo tour of the year in volcanic activity from The Atlantic.
Zoom Info

Panoramic Eruption

Volcanic eruptions, while seemingly rare, are actually quite common. There’s around 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth and about 50 of those will erupt in a given year. But rarely will two erupt close to each other. Even rarer is three erupting in proximity. Four? That’s just nuts!

But that’s what is currently happening on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, along the northwest edge of the Ring of Fire. This particular string of of eruptions around Tolbachik resulted in huge rivers of lava pouring from fissures in the Earth, but very little ash and debris released into the sky. This allowed an aerial panorama team to helicopter around the bubbling inferno without dying a fiery death.

They put together this amazing interactive volcano panorama that lets you fly above the action from the comfort of your own home, which is much safer than trudging through Siberian ice in order to stand next to exploding magma.

Enjoy that (I did), and then check out this photo tour of the year in volcanic activity from The Atlantic.